With the opening of its latest exhibit, “Glencoe’s Black Heritage,” representatives of the Glencoe Historical Society hope people will be intrigued about how some Black residents have made the village their home since the last part of the 19th Century.
“We are telling stories about our Black community from all different eras,” Glencoe Historical Society co-president Karen Ettelson said.
Spread over two buildings at the historical society campus at 375 Park Avenue, the exhibit presents stories of Black residents who moved into the village starting in 1884, according to GHS.
With many Black residents seeking fresh economic opportunities in Glencoe, Ettelson said some people worked domestic jobs at the homes of white residents, but the majority of the early Black residents either started businesses or sought jobs at existing businesses.
Ettelson believes the early Glencoe leaders, from the time of the village’s incorporation in 1869, were open to a diverse community as some had ties to the abolitionist movement and the Freedmen’s Bureau, a post-Civil War program aimed to assist Black people in finding employment and educational opportunities.
She believes they were drawn to Glencoe because there was affordable land and integrated schools and noted most but not all Black residents lived in the southern half of the village starting in the late 1880s.
The exhibit highlights the efforts of some of the earliest Black business owners such as Homer Wilson, who founded a laundry on Adams Avenue, and takes visitors from the early days through several eras. There are presentations of Black soldiers from Glencoe who helped break the military race barrier by serving in the Tuskegee Airmen; the Golden Thirteen, the first African-American commissioned officers of the U.S. Navy, and the first Black U.S. Marines at Montford Point at North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune.
Much of the exhibit’s focus centers on St. Paul AME Church, which was founded in 1884 and is still in existence today on Washington Avenue in the village.
“It touched my heart, the thoroughness, the detail, passion and research. Everything that has been done to highlight this exhibit is first class and so wonderful,” said Susan Richmond, a lifelong member of St. Paul AME.
Ettelson said St. Paul AME played a central role in Glencoe’s early development.
“St. Paul sponsored activities for the entire community, and the entire community responded,” she said.
There were about 350 Black Glencoe residents around 1920 but the population started to decrease due to the efforts of the Glencoe Homes Association, also known as The Syndicate. That organization bought up many properties in south Glencoe and began flipping them with restrictive covenants prohibiting sales to Black people as well as those of Italian, Greek and other non-Caucasian descent, according to Ettelson.
In 1929, the Glencoe Park District used its power of eminent domain law to condemn homes of Black and Italian residents to make way for a new park next to South School, Ettelson said.
Ettelson said prejudice has existed in the area in other forms, including the burning of the first St. Paul AME by arsonists in 1930, and it took a federal court order in 1942 to open Glencoe Beach to Black beachgoers.
“We have to be realistic, at certain times over the years, there have been problems in the community,” Ettelson said.
By the 1960s, there were attempts to open up the village to a more diverse population, according to Ettelson.
“There were groups who worked hard for fair and open housing,” she said. “They weren’t always successful but there was a concerted effort.”
Richmond said she was very comfortable growing up as a Black young woman in the village, but there were problems.
“Most of the girls as we grew up, we fled Glencoe. You needed more of a social life when you tried to date. Guys from Evanston were always stopped by the police going home. That is something that has been going on for decades,” she said.
The exhibit traces the village’s history for Black residents through the 1990s, noting how James Webb was the first and, as of now, only Black village president.
Currently, U.S. Census data indicates there are less than 100 Black residents currently living in the village with a population of nearly 8,900 people.
Ettelson anticipates the exhibit will be in place for at least 18 months.
“We want people to come and see it and enjoy it,” she said. “I think this is an experience where someone is going to have to come back a couple of times to see all of it.”
Richmond, who said her family has lived in the village for many generations, shared a similar sentiment.
“I hope people will come and see it so they can know their community and the part that we, as Black people, have played in the community. Not just in the church but by growing up here but also living and working here,” she said. “Glencoe is my hometown and my mama’s and her mama’s. It is part of my life and part of my history.”
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.